[Guest Post] Busy Moms Need Fit Bodies

These guest bloggers were gracious enough to share their thoughts on the Motherhood Juggling Act while I'm on a babymoon. Please support them by leaving some thoughtful comments and visiting their sites.
 
Busy Moms Need Fit Bodies by Kia Lewis

Finding the time to exercise while juggling a husband, children, a full-time job, household duties, and insert-other-obstacle-here is tough. But there are tons of mothers out there who make it work in some capacity. I don't want to talk about that today. You can really use any generic time management strategies that you want to make time to exercise. I want to talk about *why* you should make fitness a priority. If fitness isn't important to you, you'll always be too busy to exercise. We make time to do things that are important to us. Fitness is one of those things for me and I feel like it should be one of those things for everyone.

Lately, I've been battling feeling a little down about some weight gain. I've lost 80lbs of baby weight over the past two years, but managed to re-gain about 15 pounds in spite of doing tons of exercise. I sometimes get really annoyed that I exercise way more than the average person yet still struggle to control my weight. 

However, I had an epiphany of sorts in the gym last week after doing a guided MP3 workout on the elliptical. At the end of the workout, my "coach" shares some encouraging thoughts. His notes on this particular day really struck me. He spoke of the whole "before and after" transformation culture of fitness (of which I am one!) and how it can direct us away from the whole point of exercise in the first place. Exercise isn't about getting ripped or running a gazillion miles in order to burn off a slice of pizza. The best reason to exercise is how it gives you the ability to live your life with energy. 

This message hit home for me. Sure, I want to lose the extra weight that I allowed to creep on. But I don't exercise simply to maintain a certain look. That is a nice side effect, but that isn't what keeps me going during a hard workout. What really keeps me going, besides the fact that I enjoy the activities I do, is the desire to carry out the basic tasks of life with ease. I was extremely overweight after delivering my son. Looking in the mirror was disappointing, but I could easily avoid mirrors. It wasn't as easy to ignore the fact that a simple trip up the stairs left me huffing and puffing. I make exercise a priority so that I can tote my 30lb son around for a long time without complaining that my arms hurt. 

I make exercise a priority so that I can dash up the stairs with ease. I don't want to hit 50 and be saddled with Type 2 diabetes like my father. I value my fitness because I want to be able to take long walks with my husband when our hair turns gray. These are the real types of reasons that I prioritize fitness and none of them involves fitting into size 4 jeans or 6-pack abs. I wake up for 6AM boot camp with the goal of living a full, energetic and active life not hindered by physical disability. 

The activities I gravitate towards tend to be a bit "extreme" (ultramarathonsCrossFit), but I do things that I enjoy and they don't feel like a chore. How can I not make time to do things I love that increase my quality of life? How can I not make time to do something that might ensure that I stick around a little longer for my husband and child? How can YOU not find a little time to work on your physical fitness today?

Kia is a wife, mother, and software engineer who enjoys running ultramarathons and lifting heavy things in her spare time. She blogs at Determined To Be Fit.